Nikon D300 Wins Camera of the Year

The newly released Nikon D300 just won Camera of the Year honors at popphoto.com. It replaces the ever popular D200 and makes some key improvements for real estate photography. The mega pixel has been raised to 12.3, the AF system has been increased from 11 points to 51 points, the 3″ VGA LCD screen provides much more clarity and color, a Live View mode has been added to make composing easier, and probably the best improvement for real estate photography is the new Active D Lighting.The Active D Lighting boosts mid tones and increases the dynamic range to help avoid those washed out looking windows on interior photos shot during the day.

According to Ken Rockwell, the best feature of the D300 is it’s ability to create super saturated color and it’s ability to handle highlights. It certainly sounds like a fantastic camera but I sure wish they included a full frame sensor. At $1,800, the D300 is definitely not cheap and the full frame Canon 5D costs just a few hundred more. I love Nikons but there’s just so many situations in real estate photography where I wish I could go just a little wider. The 1.5x crop factor on the D300 just doesn’t go wide enough to justify the stiff price tag. In actuality, the D300 with the widest DX Lens, Nikon 12-24mm, only goes as wide as a 35mm equivalent of 20mm. Dang it. Full frame would have made it a no brainer. I would even settle for a 9mm DX lens which would be the 35mm equivalent of 14mm, but one can only hope that Nikon will someday produce such an instrument. Oh well, I might have to switch to Canon just so I can go full frame.